Cost of living and young people priorities for the PM during first visit to Northern Ireland
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has arrived in Northern Ireland as part of his summer tour of the United Kingdom.
- Prime Minister in Belfast today, his first visit since taking office, hearing from young people about bills, jobs and their prospects.
- He meets the First Minister and deputy First Minister this afternoon, then all five main parties, with an offer to solve problems rather than score points.
- Northern Ireland will help set the growth agenda at the National Economic Council in October.
The Prime Minister has arrived in Northern Ireland as part of his summer tour of the United Kingdom.
In Northern Ireland for the first time since becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham will meet with the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland later today.
The Prime Minister first spoke with Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly on his second day in office, where he said he was serious about finding common ground based on collaborative, practical and pragmatic relations with the Northern Ireland Executive to deliver for people across Northern Ireland.
At their first meeting today in Belfast, the Prime Minister is expected to deliver the message that he wants to work in genuine partnership so that families in Northern Ireland have more hope and more room to breathe from cost-of-living pressures.
This comes as the Prime Minister announced earlier that he will convene the First Ministers of Wales and Scotland, and the First and deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland in October, to discuss how we will drive good growth in every postcode across the UK.
The Prime Minister will also today hold meetings with Sinn Féin, The Democratic Unionist Party, The Alliance Party, The Ulster Unionist Party and The Social Democratic and Labour Party, where he will reiterate that we should all take a problem-solving, not points-scoring approach, to deliver to the best of our abilities for people in Northern Ireland.
Before these engagements, the Prime Minister will spend time in Belfast hearing from young people about the issues that impact their lives and their aspirations for the future. This will include the Prime Minister speaking with teenagers and staff involved in mentoring schemes within Belfast’s creative music scene - which seeks to elevate local artists and promote the city as a UNESCO City of Music.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said:
People in Northern Ireland want more breathing space from the cost of living, good, well-paid jobs and opportunities for their children.
Political point-scoring in the past has made this harder, not easier. We need to be better, so I want to work with the Northern Ireland Executive and the main political parties to try and make a real difference to communities here, and that’s the message I’ll be taking into my meetings later.